What do airline passengers want?

According to a recent study, airline passengers want more control of their journey and are looking for more self-service and mobile-based services as they reduce stress levels during travel. Airports and airlines have already started tailoring their services to the new requests of their customers.

According to a recent study, airline passengers want more control of their journey and are looking for more self-service and mobile-based services as they reduce stress levels during travel. Airports and airlines have already started tailoring their services to the new requests of their customers.

According to the "Air Transport Passenger Self-Service Survey" carried out by SITA and released this week, 70 percent of passengers now carry smartphones, compared to 54 percent in 2011, which is pushing the demand for services such as mobile check-in, self-boarding and flight information updates on their mobiles.

A separate survey carried out by SITA, the "Airline IT Trends Survey," shows that 50 percent of airlines already offer a mobile check-in service. This number is expected to increase to 90 percent in 2015.

Regarding the role of social media in the air traveling experience, while 62 percent of the surveyed passengers are active on social media, they do not consider travel services via social media a priority.

However, as the number of demands of passengers change, airports and carriers are finding new ways of adapting. Some airports are already working on giving more control to passengers throughout their journey.

Such is the case of Billund Airport in Denmark, the first in the world to put in place a system to allow passengers to print baggage tags and boarding cards at home.

In January American Airlines installed a series of kiosks at Los Angeles Airport, eliminating all of its counters. JetBlue Airways has also put in place a system in Las Vegas where passengers can go through a self-boarding gate to get onto their plane.

The "Air Transport Passenger Self-Service Survey" was carried out among 2,526 passengers from more than 70 countries between April and May 2012 at six major international airports representing key world regions such as Abu Dhabi International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, Frankfurt Airport, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport.